Cozy Dahlia Lounge’s Northwest Wonders

Tom Douglas is a larger-than-life figure in the food world here. The self-taught chef, who worked as a carpenter, wine salesman and auto mechanic before discovering food, had a big hand in defining Northwest or Pacific Rim cuisine.

His first restaurant was Dahlia Lounge in 1984, followed by Etta’s Seafood a year later and the Palace Kitchen in 1996. He’s also the author of the cookbook “Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen” (William Morrow, 2000). Last year, he moved his first restaurant into a big corner space on 4th Avenue in the heart of downtown.

Next door is his bakery. It was already closed when I walked by on my way to dinner at Dahlia Lounge, which may have been a good thing, since I immediately zeroed in on the antique cake stands for sale inside--not to mention the towering coconut cream pie in the window.

Perhaps because of the long rainy season, Seattle restaurants tend toward the cozy. Dahlia’s decor is immediately welcoming, rain or no. The color scheme is red red red embellished with swirling Art Deco dahlias in mosaic. The best seats are the comfy booths along the wall.

First comes good crusty bread, sweet butter and the wine list, which, quite naturally, showcases Washington wines. We’re in Seattle, and to me, that means oysters, glorious Northwest coast oysters. I could have eaten a couple of dozen myself, but I had other seafood to try: from the “sea bar,” a sparkling fresh scallop ceviche, tender octopus drizzled with lemon, and satiny smoked salmon with the punch of hot mustard.

The weather here conspires to make you hungry, so it’s all too easy to keep the appetizers coming. Among the best I sampled was a terrific flash-fried soft-shell crab with smashed avocado in a stinging hot pepper vinaigrette and squash blossoms stuffed with fresh goat cheese and herbs.

Douglas’ food is more sensual than intellectual, firmly grounded in flavor and color and texture. He’s a kind of cook’s cook, confident enough to let great Northwest products speak for themselves. Fresh, sweet crab meat is what you taste in his solid lemon-scented Dungeness crab cakes teamed with white rose potatoes and English peas in creme fraiche. The flavor of a roasted free-range chicken is buttressed with Moroccan accents of T’charmela olives and preserved lemons. And Oregon country rib-eye steak comes with an irresistible sweet corn and fava bean succotash. It’s a relief not to have to choose your own sides.

Come dessert time, we were almost too full but soldiered on. I had to have a piece of that coconut cream pie, a Dahlia signature. This is it, all right, a pie worth traveling 1,200 miles to try.

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Dahlia Lounge, 2001 4th Ave., Seattle; (206) 682-4142; fax (206) 467-0568; https://www.tomdouglas.com. Open for dinner daily, and for lunch Monday to Friday. Dinner appetizers, $7 to $18; main courses, $18 to $32. Corkage, $15. Valet parking.